Note: This column represents the opinions
of the writer and as such, is not purported as fact
Sponsor's Message
|
A regular Aardvark reader has told me that he recently received a "marketing" email
from Air New Zealand, which isn't unusual -- lots of companies stay in touch
with customers by email and let them know of special deals or rates.
He was concerned however, that this email had a deceptive subject line that
started with "Re:".
What's going on AirNZ? Are you preparing to get into the spam business?
Surely if you're sending email only to those people who have requested
such marketing messages then there's no need to trick people into opening
it is there?
And while on the subject of spam, it might pay to have a read of
this story [The Age]
which shows how the Aussie's proposed anti-spam legislation might
not be everything it's cracked up to be.
The Aardvark PC-Based Digital
Entertainment Centre Project
Yes, at last, this feature
has been updated again! (31 Mar 2003)
Why is this important to us?
Well I seem to recall that our own ITC minister, you know -- the guy who
once said that the issue of spam was "too hard" for legislators, has subsequently
suggested that we might follow Australia's lead in respect to such laws.
Oh dear!
And here's something that will probably strike terror into your heart...
It seems that after years of battling thieves who keep ripping up
copper phone and data lines to sell as scrap metal, Nigeria has
decided to launch
a wireless mobile Internet service.
Yes, now all those Nigerian scammers can offer you a share of their
MILLIONS OF DOLLARS IN US CURRENCY from the comfort and convenience
of their taxi-cab or bicycle.
And it seems that the criminals been quick to take advantage of this greatly
improved internet connectivity. In celebration of the event, it seems
that MR ADU BUNABUDABI PRES has been trying to find victims (oops, I mean
helpful souls) to launder a large sum of unclaimed money through an
account at a fake Lloyds Bank website.
And finally for today (while I'm on a roll), some idiot used my yahoomail.com
email address ("Dontspam") last week when they listed their site on a raft of
web directory websites.
The guy who did it (Craig) tells me he didn't think anyone would be using my address
and is now awfully regretful, especially after I offered to forward the resulting
spam to him :-)
But, just in case you're ever tempted to use these "free" services to boost traffic
to your website I can tell you that you will be spammed to eternity and back if
you do.
My Yahoomail account is now collecting around 90 additional spams per day right
now and it's easy to see that they've originated from these link-sites. The
spams are for valueless things like MLM schemes, other link-sites, etc.
And the cunning thing is that unless you use a valid address, the sites won't
display your listing because they require response to a confirmation email
(with advertising) first.
I'm also informed that appearing on some of these link-sites will actually
do more harm than good because it's possible that several of the more popular search
engines actually demote sites that they find there.
One thing's for sure -- spam is still a problem!
If any Aardvark readers want to share an opinion on today's column or
add something, you're invited to chip in and have your say in
The Aardvark Forums or, if you prefer,
you can contact me directly.
Yes, You Can Donate
Although the very kind folks at iHug continue to generously sponsor the
publication of Aardvark, the bills still exceed the income by a fairly
significant amount. It is with this in mind therefore that I'm once
again soliciting donations from anyone who feels they're getting some
value from this daily column and news index. I've gone the PayPal
way of accepting donations because the time involved in processing a bunch
of little credit-card billings sometimes exceeds the monetary value they
represent. Just click on the button to donate whatever you can afford.
NOTE: PayPal bills in US dollars so don't accidentally donate twice
what you were intending :-)
Contacting Aardvark
I'm always happy to hear from readers, whether they're delivering brickbats,
bouquets or news tip-offs.
If you'd like to contact me directly, please
this form. If you're happy for me to republish
your comments then please be sure and select For Publication.
Other media organisations seeking more information or republication rights
are also invited to contact me.
Add Aardvark To Your Own Website!
Got a moment? Want a little extra fresh content for your own website or
page?
Just add a
couple of lines of JavaScript
to your pages and you can get
a free summary of Aardvark's daily commentary -- automatically updated
each and every week-day.
Aardvark also makes a summary of this daily column available via XML using
the RSS format. More details can be found
here.
Contact me if you decide to use either of these feeds and
have any problems.
Linking Policy
Want to link to this site? Check out Aardvark's
Linking Policy.
|
Did you tell someone else about Aardvark today? If not then do it
now!
|
|
|